The Indian River varsity baseball team (3-3) just couldn’t get a hit to drop against pitcher Brian Perkins and the rest of the red-hot Newark Yellow Jackets (6-0) in a 2-0 loss on April 10.
Coastal Point • RUSLANA LAMBERT
Nick Kmetz hit the ball hard in two of his at-bats against Newark (6-0). But Indian River (3-3) could only muster one hit in a 2-0 loss.
Perkins allowed only two base runners (no walks) in a one-hitter and struck out four, in addition to having the only extra base hit (a double) of the game.
Indians starting pitcher Trevor Abbott (1-2) gave up six hits (five singles), walked four, struck out three and gave up two unearned runs following two errors in the second inning, to give Newark enough of a lead for the 2-0 victory.
A swirling wind, combined with the sun, caused Indians right-fielder Josh Sweetman to lose the ball on the first at-bat of the inning, for the first error. And a high toss from first baseman Mike Casale to a covering Abbott allowed two base runners that would’ve otherwise been out. Newark’s next batter moved the runners to second and third, and without the error that would have signaled the end of scoring threat and the inning.
Indian River had hit the ball hard throughout the game but was unable to string any hits together because they were hitting directly to Newark’s fielders.
“You can’t blame Josh (for the error) because the wind was terrible,” Indians center fielder Thomas Veith said.
“But it (the loss) isn’t Trevor’s fault either,” he added. “We didn’t give him any run support.
“We hit the ball hard, but it seemed like we hit right to them every time,” Veith said.
Veith noted that the lengthy spring break holiday may have contributed to the players committing four errors in the loss.
“The break can kind of take you out of your game,” he explained. “And it’s comes down to us to make sure we practice on our own and stay on it.”
The Indians will travel to Nandua for a non-conference game on April 12 and then return to conference play against Caesar Rodney on April 17. The Indians will play three of their next four games on the road, with Laurel being the only home game (April 19) during that span.